1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 43 



the plants, that the spring growth can easily break through and at 

 once get a good start, and so show the rows plainly, to be followed 

 by the horse and cultivator a week or two later, and this should be 

 kept up early and often, until the 1st of September, when all cul- 

 tivation should cease, that the growth of plants may be checked, 

 ' and the wood ripen up well before the hard frosts come, which 

 would be likely to kill many of the plants if cultivation was con- 

 tinued late in the season, for while we have a number of almost 

 hardy varieties, we have none that are entirely so, and must manage 

 their cultivation so as to ripen the wood as early in the season as 

 possible. 



With a fair start in the spring, the plants will make a growth 

 of from four to six feet the first season if allowed to do so, but it 

 is best to pinch off the tops when two and a half or three feet 

 high, which they should be -by the middle of July. This will cause 

 them to send out lateral shoots, so that nearly double the crop 

 can be obtained. Many of these laterals, reaching a foot or more in 

 length early in summer, may be pinched off, causing them in turn 

 to throw out laterals, so that by fall we have a strong stocky bush 

 capable of withstanding the winter winds, and carrying its crop 

 of fruit the next season without the use of stakes or trellis of any 

 sort. 



After the first year canes will make a much stronger growth 

 and should be pinched when not more than eighteen inches high. 

 The two or three topmost laterals growing nearly upright will be 

 three feet or more in height by July, and by pinching these off an 

 enormous amount of fruiting wood may be obtained. For hill 

 culture three, or at the most four, canes are sufficient. Hedge- 

 rows should not be more than a foot wide at the ground, with 

 canes eight to ten inches apart. By close pruning, and the spread- 

 ing of the laterals, we will have a solid, compact hedge, two and 

 one-half to three feet wide at the top, and if rows can be arranged 

 running north and south, plants will be less likely to winter kill 

 than they would in hills or in rows running east or west, the 

 solid, compact hedge, with three or four feet of open space be- 

 tween the rows, furnishing a sort of race-way for the currents of 

 cold air. Some cultivation should be given early in the season 

 each year before the plants are in bloom ; but it should be shallow, 

 so as not to break the roots. In fact, after the first season, there 

 should be no deep plowing or cultivating between them at any 



